Integration of scheduling and advanced process control in semiconductor manufacturing: review and outlook

Scheduling optimization in semiconductor manufacturing is always a crucial task in production performance indicators such as machine utilization, cycle time and delivery times. With the increasing complexity of fabrication techniques and scales, scheduling and control activities are inevitably confronted with each other and shall be integrated correspondingly. In particular scheduling and control are mutually dependent as control requires decisions from schedules, and scheduling should take control information into account. Based on a literature survey, we propose a general review and an outlook of the expected improvements related to binding scheduling decisions and information/constraints coming from Advanced Process Control systems in semiconductor manufacturing. Potential issues and tasks concerning this integration are addressed in this paper in order to stimulate more work in research and industrial practices.